


I Tolerate You

by Ms_Julius



Category: BioShock 1 & 2 (Video Games)
Genre: M/M, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-31
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-10-19 22:16:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17610047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ms_Julius/pseuds/Ms_Julius
Summary: Not many people would prefer to work with doctor Yi Suchong.However, over the months, Alexander has grown accustomed to it.





	I Tolerate You

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a wonderful art found here: https://brueklynn.tumblr.com/post/181464639152/ok-im-done  
> It is a work of a wonderful artist @Brueklynn from Tumblr, go and check out their stuff if you are even a little bit interested about BioShock.

The silence between them had stretched on a while now. Leaning on his desk, Alexander took a quick sideways glance at the man beside him, trying his best to make the movement as unnoticeable as possible.

Suchong was not the easiest man to work with. In fact, he was definitely one of the most unpredictable, unstable and possibly dangerous partner Alexander has ever encountered during his long career at engineering and mechanics. Even at his better moods, Suchong had a tendency to make snappy, often ill-advised decisions without consulting Alexander, resulting a perfect mixture of chaos and success. If they were lucky.

It was brilliant, and borderline frightening.

But there was no denying they worked well together. Alexander had the patience to balance the good doctor’s desire to simply push on, and when it came down to it, Alexander was a man enough to admit that on their own, his innovations would be regarded as nothing more than expensive toys. Much like Suchong’s work would be considered as unethical tempering at best, were it come to daylight on its own. There was a certain level of comfort to be had, knowing that even though everyone else was forced to walk on eggshells around Suchong, Alexander himself was more or less able to maintain a steady head while working with the man. Not to say that he didn’t frequently feel terrified by the progress they were making, he certainly did. But in the face of advancement, great men put aside such notions and carried on. That’s what he had believed from the day one.

And being forced to work with a man of insatiable thirst for improvement, both for himself and those around him, Alexander found he couldn’t picture another path to future. Not anymore at least.

“There are multiple grammar errors on pages 14 and 16.”

The  suddenly spoken words startled Alexander and the pen he’d been holding clattered to the table as he turned around, now openly looking at Suchong. “What?”

The tall man frowned at him before sighing and presenting a clipboard holding up a thick stack of papers, one of the pages having several red marks written in the sidelines. “You misspelled the word ‘bonding’ five times in different instances.”

“Did I?” Alexander leaned in closer, taking the offered paper in his hand and squinting at the fine print. “Are you certain you didn’t just read it wrong?”

“Hardly,” Suchong sniffed. “It has been written with a T instead of D.”

After Alexsander ran his eyes through the page, he was forced to admit that the man was right. His dyslexia had a bad habit of rising its head when he had to write out long pieces of work, reports and essays of his research were the most notorious ones. Usually people looked past them since the content of the text was enough to offer a reliable guideline even if there were some misspelling, but as one would expect, Suchong was not one to let it slide.

“Well I trust you could still understand it? I mean it is just a small -”

“It is a lapse of protocol,” Suchong interrupted him, his frown growing tenser. “Your ‘small’ mistakes makes the text unreasonably hard to comprehend.”

The heap of paper was pushed into his hands, some of them slipping to the ground before he had a chance to catch them.

“Hey!”

“Fix them immediately, mister Alexander. I’ll finish my reading once you’ve made sufficient corrections.” With that, Suchong turned away, picking up another stack of pages, most likely his own research papers he had completed day prior.

Rolling his eyes, Alexander set the pile down onto his table, pushing his mug aside to make room. “You know, if I am so disrupting to work with, perhaps you should start to look for another partner.” He kept his gaze on his work, waiting for a reaction. As expected, the other man lifted his eyes from the papers, tossing a confused look towards him.

“Why would I ever do that?” He sounded genuinely baffled. His pen, ready to mark down the work before him, had stopped mid-air.

Not sure if he followed either, Alexander answered by merely shrugging and raising his eyebrows. “It just seems that you don’t have much patience when it comes to my working habits.”

“That’s not -” Suchong trailed off, a mild tinge of irritation flickering in his eyes, “I was simply attempting to bring it to your attention.”

The slight edge of uncertainty, so rarely heard in the doctor’s voice, prompted Alexander to smile a bit. He raised his hand to cover it up, pretending to lean more heavily against the table. “So, you _do_ enjoy working with me?”

“ _Enjoy_ is such a strong word,” Suchong said, grimacing to himself. “I... tolerate you.”

Before Alexander was able to completely process what had been said, Suchong had returned his mind to the worksheets, entirely oblivious to the stuttering bewilderment blastered to Alexander’s face. He didn’t raise his gaze again, becoming wrapped up in the mixture of numbers and formulas snaking on the paper.

 _Tolerated_. He was being... tolerated.

In another life, Alexander would have found such remarks impolite, offensive even. But when he watched how Suchong, his focus nailed solely to the page, took a unconscious step forward and ended up standing right next to his work desk, he couldn’t bring himself to be annoyed, not fully. Whereas the word _would_ be hurtful in any other context, here it was a simple form of flattery. A flawed, cynical flattery, but a true one nonetheless.

And with Suchong, that was really most he could realistically hope for.


End file.
